1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to communication circuits, and more specifically to pulse shaping in a communication system.
2. Related Art
Communication systems are well-known in the relevant arts, and generally include one or more transmitters and one or more receivers. The transmitters and receivers may communicate with each other using corresponding modulation techniques (digital and/or analog) and protocols. The modulation techniques include those in which information is represented as changes in one or more of the amplitude, frequency and phase of a carrier signal used in a transmitter, as is also well-known in the relevant arts. Some examples of modulation techniques used in communication systems include frequency-shift keying (FSK), phase-shift keying (PSK), quadrature-amplitude modulation (QAM), etc.
Pulse shaping generally refers to a technique by which the shape of a signal (e.g., binary pulse or a baseband signal) to be transmitted is modified (or filtered) prior to transmission. Pulse shaping may be used in a communication system for reasons such as to limit the bandwidth of a signal to fit within a channel bandwidth allocated or available for use by the signal, to mitigate the undesirable effects of inter-symbol interference due to finite bandwidth of the communication channel used (wireless or wireline), etc. Pulse shaping may also be used in a receiver, in conjunction with pulse shaping in a corresponding transmitter, to enable matched filtering of a received signal to minimize, or reduce to zero, noise due to inter-symbol interference (ISI).
The specific pulse shapes (or pulse shaping filters) that may be used in a transmitter and receiver of a communication system may be selected based on considerations such as, for example, ease of implementation, the desired level of reduction in ISI, etc.